Acquisitions and Startups' Survival Strategies

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Max Zeff, and Anthony Ha took over the Builders Stage on Monday morning to kick off the event with the question everyone's asking: are we in an AI bubble? 

Between valuations that have tripled in months, $300M seed rounds, and $100B commitments flying around, the money is moving fast — maybe too fast. The Equity team breaks down what peak bubble looks like, where the actual business models are (spoiler: a lot of companies are betting on AI datacenters), and why some founders are betting against the scaling race entirely. 

Listen to the full episode to hear: 

• Why this feels like peak bubble territory, and what the wildest funding rounds of the past month tell us about where AI is headed 

• How the AI data center boom is reshaping infrastructure investing, and which unexpected players are getting in on the action 

• Why Cohere's former AI research lead is going against the grain and betting against the scaling race 

• What happens when a startup's viral demo becomes its entire business model (and whether that's sustainable) 

Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

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